Click It! Key Ring Holders
About Us We are three Management majors at James Madison University, looking to help others keep track of their keys in a way that they will never forget! Click It! Key Ring Holders are seat belt buckles that have been taken from cars and revamped into aesthetically pleasing and fun key chain holders. Using removable adhesive on the back of our buckles, Click Its can be removed and replaced on any type of wall surface. The idea struck after our group realized that seatbelts/buckles are one of the few materials from junkyard cars that have not largely found a second life. Click It! will recycle these materials and increase the likeklihood that you will remember where your keys are. Never again will you lose them, because Click It! will always be where you last left it. Our first MVP MVP #1 was created after Gabe spoke with a friend in charge of a junkyard--after some discussion, we were allowed to cut off several metal buckles and connectors for free. Cutting a proper hole in the metal became the biggest issue, because the machine being used was damaging the buckle, as you can see by the unpolished and discolored portion of the metal. This is the most basic approach we could use MVP 2 After customer discovery, our team learned that the majority of people preferred seatbelts that had the press button on the front, making it easier to release the keys simply by pressing on the front. We were forced to double down on our efforts to locate seatbelts with this specific feature; the front press button allows us to avoid having to use a small wooden wall mount to put the buckles at an angle at which the customer can easily locate and press down on the release. We will not, however, stop acquiring side release buttons, as it is a minor enough fe ature that should not stop customers from being intrigued by our product. Trip to Broadway, VA Our first trip to a junkyard in Broadway, VA ended extremely well, as we were able to acquire 42 buckles for $.50 each, using the manager's exacto knife to cut and tear our way into future Key Ring Holders. All of the cars were completely in tact save for a few bruises, and nearly every seatbelt was fairly easy to pull and cut out--we will continue to stay in contact with this junkyard as it has yielded the most successful inputs to date. Many of the buckles acquired from this junkyard had the front press button, as you can see from the picture below. This front press button allows us to skip the wooden wall-mount, and simply apply adhesive or velcro directly to the back of the buckle, where the user can then place it on any wall or surface. Final Side Press Many customers still prefer the side press buckles, so we will conti nue to acquire these inputs from vendors. We have cleaned up, polished, and painted the buckle a platinum silver and punched a hole into the metal key ring. After cutting down the bulky plastic material on the key ring, voila! Our final Side Press Key ring holder is completed. A much better look than what our first MVP had looked like. Weekly Update 16 total current preorders @ $10.00 apiece Calculated entire cost structure broken down per buckle (90 buckles total) Buckle/fastener = $0.50 Paint per buckle: = $0.02 Cost of machine work per buckle = $0.22 Cost of mount: = $0.04 Paint per mount = $0.01 Cost of Adhesive per mount: = $0.10 Cost of Gorilla glue per buckle = $0.06 Cost of drill bits split per buckle = $0.17 Total marginal cost per buckle = $1.12 Marginal revenue per unit sold = $8.88 Profit margin = 88.8% Weekly Update 2 We have dropped off all metal buckles with Gabe's friend, who has professional experience with metal cutting. This will greatly enhance our efficiency, as it was becoming increasingly frustrating and difficult to cut the buckles to their proper sizes, and even cut holes that will allow keys to be clipped on. In addition to this, we have begun painting all plastic holders, while leaving a couple unpainted, as customer discovery has indicated that some people would prefer the holder simply be cleaned up and left unpainted (perhaps this is more 'authentic'). Weekly Update 3 Tory has sold 8 buckles to customers in his hometown--will be delivered this weekendT -Scott acquired 5 seatbelts during a disappointing trip to a junkyard in Fredericksburg--We exptected much more Weekly Update 4 - Gabe has secured 25 sales from a single buyer--Advance Auto Parts will now feature our buckles Weekly Update 5 Picked up buckles from 8 cars, filling the 25 order from advance auto. Continuing to do individual sales on the side Weekly Update 6 Stopped by Gabe's dad's friend's shop to see if they were interested-- they ended up buying 30 for their own regular customers. Weekly Update 7 Scott and Tory's invidual sales picking up--Scott sold 6 in a single day and Tory 8. May end up needing to do another junkyard pickup before the end of the semester Weekly Update 8 Scott has now sold 11, with more orders on their way. Dropping wall mounts off with Gabe so that he can continue to fill the 55 total sales from advance and the other shop. Tory has begun experimenting with tri-color buckles in hopes of picking up even more interest in our products.